RYI STUDENT BLOG

As we all know, there are very few places for lay students to observe, understand and experience the monastic way of study and practice, which is a sublime way to study Buddhism to intensify insight, advance spirituality and develop simplicity. The Center for Buddhist Studies at Rangjung Yeshe Institute is one among those places. The monastic way of study differs in many respects from the secular way of study. The monastic way of study let us to reach at vast and profound teaching of the Buddha. The authentic understanding of such vastness and profundity of the Buddha’s teaching is possible only after our enrollment in the place like RYI. We can hear the difference between those two ways of study from someone, although hearing lacks efficacy to distinct them rationally and meaningfully. We cannot observe and experience what really goes on in the monastic way of study without being in a monastery. To be really able to observe, experience and distinguish the monastic way of stu...

When we plunge ourselves day after day; month after month into the rigorous study of Dharma and its related skills (reading/speaking tibetan, sanskrit, ect.) in a challenging environment such at RYI;  it becomes all too easy to forget the original motivations and intentions that initially inspired our decision to enter full-time and in-depth study of the precious Buddha-dharma in the first place. If you are someone like me; your initial motivation for studying at RYI in such an intensive manner was to simply gain the knowledge and education necessary to truly comprehend the vast Buddha-dharma on an intellectual level, and furthermore; (even more importantly/fundamentally) to gather the skills required in-order to experientially accomplish and realize the profound dharma’s innermost meaning. These initial motivations which where once so strong/intense within my experience, have slowly diminished throughout the course of the two years that I have now studied at RYI. T...

                                                                In the last winter break I went to Lumbini, the birth place of the Buddha for about ten days of semi retreat. There, I've decided to visit the ancient town of Kapilavastu, where prince Sidhartha grew up and left at the age of 29 in search of enlightenment.      As it was the time of unrest in the Terai and there was no public transportation, I rented a bicycle and paddled though the plains for a whole long and beautiful day. The area of Tilaurakot, which is about 25 km from Lumbini inhabits many ancient ruins of sacred places for Buddhists, including the birth spots of previous Buddhas. In Kapilavastu  itself one can stroll though the ruins, and even the famous “eastern gate” from which prince Sidhartha left through on...